Crews start checking carbon monoxide levels at other Durham housing complexes

Sixty-one percent of the 346 McDougald Terrace units checked over the last week had at least one faulty appliance – 211 stoves, 38 furnaces and 35 water heaters – that will need to be repaired or replaced to eliminate the carbon monoxide issue, DHA Chief Executive Anthony Scott said Tuesday.

"A lot of this is going to depend on, what is it going to take to make the necessary repairs," he said at a news conference. "Appliance shifting out is one thing, but we do have pretty significant concerns on the venting system."

The furnaces date to the 1950s, when McDougald Terrace was built, and the system used to vent gas from them and the water heaters to the outside doesn't meet current building codes and will likely need to be included in the repairs, he said.

"Obviously, when you hear 200-plus stove emitting high levels of CO, that raises great concern," Scott said. "There's a lot we need to understand why that is. Is it a stove issue? Is there something else going on?"

Five other DHA properties have similar gas appliances and will now be checked, he said: Hoover Road, Oxford Manor, Laurel Oaks, Club Boulevard and Edgemont Elms.

Fliers showed up on doors at Hoover Road on Tuesday to alert residents that contractors would be stopping by to inspect their appliances for carbon monoxide problems.

"He told the maintenance man that, 'Hey, this is a high level of 31. We need you guys to shut this off immediately,'" Azaria Lunsford said after a contractor found a high reading from her stove.

A reading of 9 parts per million of carbon monoxide is considered dangerous.

"It tells me they're trying to cover up their tracks," she said. "They're trying to control the atmosphere of what's really going on."

Scott said he wasn't aware of that situation.

"I'll definitely look into that," he said. "There's no reason why residents can't know what's going on in their units."

Lunsford was among a number of Hoover Road residents whose old stoves were replaced.

"As they are discovering issues, they're doing repairs for those units now, and if it becomes an issue where it can't be immediately dealt with, then we we offer that person an opportunity to leave if they chose to," Scott said.

Some Hoover Road residents have already moved to local hotels, and Lunsford said she feels she also needs to leave for her family's safety.

Despite the concerns and frustrations of DHA residents, Durham city and county leaders continue to stand behind Scott and DHA administrators and are accepting some of the blame for the problems of public housing in the city.

"We, as a community, have failed this community of McDougald Terrace for 40 years," Mayor Steve Schewel said.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development inspects more almost 6,800 public housing complexes across the United States, checking issues ranging from tripping hazards on sidewalks to damaged doors and walls to gas and electrical problems.

Seven of the 14 DHA properties scored below 60 out of 100 on their most recent HUD inspections, and McDougald Terrace, Hoover Road, Cornwallis Road and Oxford Manor all scored in the 30s in their latest inspections.

Despite the low scores, none of the money from the affordable housing referendum Durham voters approved in November was earmarked for McDougald Terrace. The referendum calls for pairing $95 million in bonds with $65 million in federal and local funding over five years.

"It’s pretty much the same old stuff we’ve been hearing," she said. "We just need people to put more action behind their words."